Vehicle control surfaces, such as airfoils for aircraft, hydrofoils for watercraft, and the like, are essential to the functionality of their respective vehicles. To that end, construction of vehicle control surfaces are often constricted by and/or designed in accordance with standards for rigidness and/or wear prevention. Accordingly, design and manufacture of vehicle control surfaces can be performed, with such standards in mind, using a variety of systems and methods of manufacture.
Some example systems and methods of manufacturing vehicle control surfaces utilize additive manufacturing, also commonly referred to as three-dimensional (3-D) printing, to construct component parts of a vehicle control surface, for assembly. Utilizing additive manufacturing in construction of vehicle control surfaces allows for a near limitless amount of design options and allows a designer and/or manufacturer to generate vehicle control surfaces out of a wide variety of suitable materials (e.g., alloys, thermoplastics, etc.). Further, by utilizing additive manufacturing in constructing vehicle control surfaces, costly, previously-utilized construction methods, such as metal casting, may be avoided, thus allowing for cost savings.
However, utilizing additive manufacturing in constructing vehicle control surfaces may introduce new construction issues based on these methods of manufacture. For example, if the vehicle control surface is to be additively manufactured in multiple parts, fasteners and/or joining between such parts may be susceptible to fatigue and/or unwanted stresses. Further, characteristics inherent to the manufacturing environment of an additive manufacturing process may need to be addressed in the design of a vehicle control surface; otherwise, a manufacturer may be at risk of part failure of such vehicle control surfaces, either during the build or during use. Additionally, for greater part performance in operation of a greater vehicle with which such control surfaces are used, it is imperative that the surfaces are of the lightest possible weight; however, in some current, known additive manufacturing processes, light weight vehicle control surfaces may be difficult or impossible to manufacture, due to part failure of thin components, such failure occurring during the manufacturing process. Accordingly, single-piece, light weight, additively manufactured vehicle control surfaces, along with systems and methods for manufacturing such vehicle control surfaces, which account for environmental characteristics of an additive manufacturing process, are desired.